Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
“I told you the crying wolf thing was going to get you in trouble one day,” I say, trying to be playful, though my voice is still full of very real concern that is in no way an act.
Alden grunts, but he does manage a small smile that I feel is just for me. And dang, if that smile doesn’t light up every corner of a world I didn’t know was so very, very dark before.
“Are we ready to continue?” The frazzled JP, who I had forgotten about completely, finally steps back toward us. He snaps open his binder and winces like it’s going to trigger a second big fall.
Alden grasps my hands again. Both of them. What do you know? It’s official. The storm of butterflies in my gut has turned into a full-on murder of crows. That’s what a group of crows is called, in case you didn’t know. A murder. Very, very interesting.
“I’m ready.” Alden squeezes my hand. The squeeze goes up through my arm and explodes to the rest of my body.
I have to squeeze back. It’s just another instinct, and it’s polite, the right thing to do—a knee-jerk response. “I’m ready too.”
“Excellent.” Scarlet claps her hands together, a huge, joyful smile lighting up her face that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the whole I’m-going-to-get-a-piss-pile-of-money-shortly deal, making her extra wrinkly where she wasn’t that wrinkly before. It’s a good look on her. The happy granny look. She grabs the bottle from Lennox, who is holding it again, and starts to pour another round of drinks. “That’s cause for celebration right there.”
CHAPTER 14
Alden
After the I do’s, the for life’s, and the I promise’s that neither of us meant, the JP had us sign a few bullshit pieces of paper and hightailed it out of our house. I’m sure he was glad to leave what he probably saw as a den of vipers. Or plain weirdos. I’m not sure he was actually scared. Unnerved, maybe, and definitely confused, especially after I went down horizontally.
I’m sure he’s seen stranger things. Maybe. Weddings are weird.
My brothers, my men, and Granny all hung around. They cooked lunch, and Granny got the booze flowing in celebration. Everyone changed into normal clothes, which, for my brothers, meant swim trunks. Well, everyone but Azalea and me. It was a scorcher, and they made the most of it by chilling in the pool while my men, who were too dignified to get in for a swim, chilled like villains in the shade of the back deck. I wish I could say that Azalea and I participated in the rousing nonsense, but the most we managed to do was sit around, a little bit shell-shocked at what we’d just done. I managed a few shots throughout the afternoon. She took a few just to humor my brothers, who wouldn’t leave her alone. While all the chaos went on around us, we remained absolutely calm.
Granny eventually cleared the herd out like she’d done the night before, leaving us alone again, strangely enough. I’m not sure why. Granny was going straight to the lawyers, I did get that, and by tomorrow, she’d have everything from a new identity to a new bank account set up for Azalea and probably her parents too, but I wasn’t sure why she was clearing out of my house again.
I no longer had to convince Azalea that getting married was a good thing. She’d already done that for us.
I no longer had to work on my charm due to the aforementioned statement.
Azalea was done with the whole marriage thing now, and she was free to leave.
Which is why the house felt extra empty and eerily quiet after everyone left. That is, everyone except Azalea. We’re both standing in the kitchen since she never left, and I joined her there after seeing everyone off.
“The place is a horrible mess,” she says softly, glancing around at the empty glasses, plates, snacks, and napkins littering the island, the countertops, and the table.
“I’ll get it. Don’t worry.”
“The pool has a few mysterious items floating in it, too,” she says absently as she turns to look out the window.
It’s impossible to see anything from this angle, but she doesn’t need to see it to know it’s true. She knows what kind of shenanigans went on out there earlier. It all started when Pink and Binksky got the leftover pizza out of the fridge and took it out to the poolside to eat. My brothers couldn’t let them have all the fun, so they leaped out of the pool and stole a box of something that didn’t have anchovies on it. They didn’t exactly keep said pizza contained to their mouths either.
“Maybe I should go clean it up.”
“No!” Whoa. That came out too exuberant and forceful. “I mean, no. I can get someone to do that.”